Page 2 of New Year, New Baby
“Adora,” my buddy corrects while popping another cookie into her mouth.“But don’t worry, I forgive you because everyone makes that mistake.What’s up, rubber duck?”
David bobs and ducks his head, his freckles distinct against the pale skin of his face.Like many redheads, he has blonde lashes and brows, which give him a cool, although slightly alien look.
“Well, the Math Club is having a bake sale, so I thought you girls would like to join us,” he invites with a big smile my way while stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jacket.The puffer makes him look like the Michelin Tire Guy, although I know beneath it, he has the narrow shoulders and bony chest of an adolescent.
“David, I’ve already taken my SATs, and so has this girl here,” Adora speaks for us.“I don’t need you to sit for the math portion of the exam for me.”
The young man goes bright red, his entire face flushing.
“Oh no, I wasn’t implying anything about the SATs,” he babbles in confusion.“Just that they have some special moonlight brownies that I thought you girls might like.Here, I even brought you one.”
Then, he pulls one hand out of his jacket pocket to reveal a smushed-up brown thing wrapped in a napkin.He hands it to me, and I peel the napkin open to reveal what looks like a chocolate treat decorated with silver sparkles on top.
“This looks yummy,” I praise.“Thank you, David.I’m on a sugar cleanse, so I’m avoiding baked goods for now.But I’ll definitely eat your moonlight brownie later,” I add in a quick voice with a dazzling smile at the teen boy.“I can make an exception for you.”
David blushes again, and it’s quite cute, actually.I appreciate that that this teen boy has an obvious crush on me.He opens his mouth to say something else, but Adora cuts him off.
“Thanks David,” she says in a loud voice.“I’ll help Nova eat it.We’re both cutting back on sugar, but we appreciate the gesture.”
David opens his mouth again, but this time he’s interrupted by a third person who’s materialized in the quad.
“Hey hey hey,” our classmate Stan growls.He claps a huge hand on David’s shoulder, which makes the thin boy stagger.“What’s going on here?Brownie for me?”Then, without a moment of hesitation, Stan plucks the brownie from my palm and pops it in his mouth.He swallows without chewing and the entire thing vanishes, as if it never existed.
“This shit is good,” Stan grins ear-to-ear.“Did you make it, David?Nice.”
By now, the poor boy is an alarming shade of fire-engine red.His voice seems to go up an octave as he speaks.
“Yeah, with my little sister,” he squeaks.
“Oh, how sweet!”I exclaim with a big smile at him.“What a nice way to spend time together building sibling bonds.”
But David knows that a so-called Big Man on Campus has arrived, and nods at Stan before backing away from the table.
“My sister Coralie and I are close despite a ten-year age gap,” he mutters while staring at the ground.“It was good talking to you, Nova.There are more treats if you girls want them!”he calls.“See ya!”Then, he disappears into the cafeteria as the BMOC turns his attention to us.
Stan is conventionally good-looking, actually, and one of the guys who seemed to sprout four inches overnight.I remember during junior year, we were about the same height, but now Stan is a massive six three, with dark brown hair, blue eyes, and broad shoulders.He’s the quarterback of the high school football team, and while he’s handsome, there’s something weird about his face.I finally figured out what it is after perusing our yearbook.It’s his lips.Stan has the fleshy, reddened lips of a cupid, and it looks weird against the chiseled planes of his face.I start seeing visions of the teen boy with a quiver of arrows on his back as he flies around in a diaper, but then stop myself.These are not nice thoughts, and I shouldn’t go down this path.
Still, why is he talking to us?Stan is a popular guy, whereas me and Adora are wallflowers who generally spend more time with the romance heroes in books, than a romance hero in real life.
“So what are you girls doing?”Stan drawls, his blue eyes assessing me.I feel like he’s trying to see my curves beneath my puffer, and mentally thank the jacket for being so shapeless.
“Eating,” says Adora while popping another cookie into her mouth.“It’s lunch time at La Salle.”
I glare at my friend because why is she being so rude?But the pretty blonde merely grins at me ear-to-ear in response.“What’s going on with you, Stan?”she asks.“What brings you to our neck of the woods?”
To my surprise, the handsome quarterback begins to flush, beginning with the nape of his neck.I can see the redness rising, and disappearing into his dark locks as his cheeks bloom.
“Well, I was just going to see if you girls wanted catch a movie sometime,” he manages in a normal tone.
“What’s out?”Adora asks, crunching loudly on a peppermint stick.“Anything good?”
“Deadpool and Wolverine,” Stan states.“It’s supposed to be a sick film.”
Adora squints at him, her blue eyes like slits.
“Yeah, but do they fight each other in the movie, like inSuperman vs.Batman, or are Deadpool and Wolverine comrades in arms?Which is it?I get so confused these days, and you never know if these Marvel Cinematic Universe movies will even have plots anymore.Stupid Warner Brothers or whoever it is just wants to cash in, and they’ll dream up dumb plot lines so that they can hit the ATM.Stupid dumbfucks.”
I cut in because while I love Adora, I have no idea why she’s acting like this today!Talk about rough around the edges.
